• Philosophy of Language, Logic, Mathematics and Mind
• History of Philosophy, especially Analytic Philosophy
• Methodology and the Foundations of Reasoning
• Conceptions of Analysis

Publications

Conference and Seminar Papers

Research Statement

My research over the last 20 years has focused on the philosophy of language and logic with particular reference to the origins and development of analytic philosophy. In my doctoral work, I explored the evolution of conceptions of sense from Frege through Russell to Wittgenstein; and it was the first half of this work that was expanded into the book I published in 1996, Frege: Making Sense. The account I gave revolved around Frege’s response to what is essentially the paradox of analysis (how can analyses be both correct and informative?), and this led me to explore in more detail the nature of analysis itself and the way in which conceptions and methods of analysis have developed in the history of philosophy. I have published a number of papers in this area over the last six years, and a monograph on analysis is nearing completion. For an overview of conceptions of analysis, and an extensive bibliography, see my entry on Analysis in the Stanford Encyclopedia.